Posted by Adam Quinan on March 24, 2008 at 13:10:02 from 99.226.247.88 user Adam.
In Reply to: Re: Ransome the Socialist posted by Duncan on March 23, 2008 at 16:16:39:
I posted the following on Duincan's blog, reproduced here for convenience.
Interesting analysis and not too far distant from my own feelings about Ransome. Ransome grew up in a leftist household and his early adult time in Bohemian London seem to have nurtured those political sympathies.
He undoubtedly was a strong supporter of the Bolsheviks of the early days of the Revolution. He knew them personally which breeds sympathy. It is pretty obvious that he agreed with their aims, if not all their methods.
The question of what happened to those political feelings after he and Evgenia returned to England is more complex. My thought is that he decided deliberately to hide his beliefs, perhaps to protect himself and Evgenia from too close an interest by British or Soviet authorities, especially after the Soviet purges started. Finally, I suspect that he probably became somewhat more "conservative" as he aged, many people do.